LABOR: One Sweet Note

In the labor cacophony last week there was one
sweetly reasonable note. The wage demands of some 1,000,000 railroad
workers were settled peacefully after two months of negotiation without
strikes, stoppages, or even the threat of a walkout.

The workers, members of 15 non-operating unions (clerks, signalmen,
freight handlers, etc.), had asked for a 25¢-an-hour boost, retroactive
to Dec. 1. The railroads met them half way with 12½, but wanted it
retroactive only to March 1. The final agreement, engineered by
Presidential Assistant John Steelman: 12½ retroactive to Feb. 1.